Was Grendel a Sasquatch?

Grendel is said to have had the following appearance: Described as being “horrifying to look upon”. He has large fang-like teeth, large hands and claws. Grendel is also described as being very tall and thought to be covered in hair.

Animals, especially the deer, were terrified at his approach. They would flee the area. This happened with all the animals that he ran into, from rabbits to horses, birds would leap from the trees and take to wing. When he would walk in the forest everything would become silent in his approach and in his passing.

It was obvious that the men and women in the mead hall were afraid of him, and when he appeared, they would attack him. He did not belong to either group, human or animal, and that was apparent by the reactions of the individuals of each group. He was treated like he didn’t belong in this place.

Grendel also exhibited the unpredictable behavior of a wild animal. Sometimes he would simply observe from a distance, other times he would approach to a close proximity, and still at other times he would growl, snarl, gnash his teeth, howl & scream. But we mostly see him as the overly aggressive and hostile killer.

Is it possible that Grendel was a Sasquatch, living in the still-fertile forests of Scandinavia? There are references to “Wildmen” living in the woods, creatures that were not men, but were not animals either. We have reports from Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, & Russia. There is an old statue of a Wildman outside of the city of Prague, in the Czech Republic.

In the Beowulf story, we hear of men attacking Grendel at first sight, and although they would have been using swords, axes, spears, and bows the weapons would still have caused pain to the creature. Then we have Grendel making a counter-attack after this initial assault. Sasquatch has been known to chase or to make an attempt to harm people who have fired on them. It is only natural for an animal to attempt to harm someone or something that has caused it pain, its called self-defense. In the Beowulf story, it is said that Grendel could not be harmed by the weapons of man, but perhaps the weapons of the day were just not sufficient enough to end the creature’s life. We have reports from people now who claim to have shot a Sasquatch, several times in some instances, only to have the creature get up and walk away. Relying on memory, I call recall seven times when a Sasquatch was shot, only to get up and walk off into the forest. I can also recall the firearms that were used: a .270 Savage, a 12ga Shotgun, a 16ga shotgun, 15 rounds from a .22 Ruger, a .243 Winchester, a .58 caliber musket, and a .38 caliber handgun. All of these weapons are more powerful than the weapons of Beowulf’s time, and still they had no immediate effect.

Could Grendel have been a medieval Sasquatch that was drawn to the Norse mead hall in typical Sasquatch-like curiosity, only to be attacked when he was first sighted? Could he have made a counter-attack at his tormentors, perhaps causing the death of some of them in the process? If this was the way things played out, then it is easy to see why Grendel would have been considered a monster. We humans tend to look at any animal that bites, claws, or mauls us as a “monstrous creature”, forgetting or simply ignoring the fact that we may have been the cause of the attack to begin with. Grendel’s description matches that of a Sasquatch, minus the claws, but even that is reported in some encounters. The reactions of wild animals to his presence match that of modern day Sasquatch reports. Grendel’s initial behavior is also strikingly similar to that of the creature we call Sasquatch. There are thousands of reports where the Sasquatch will simply observe from a distance, there are still other reports claiming that the creature has been within close proximity (the Sasquatch that I observed was no more than 50 yards away from me), and there are reports of the creature displaying territorial aggression; such as growling, snarling, grinding or gnashing its teeth. We also have many reports of the creature making vocalizations, in which howls and screams are some of them. Still there are other reports where people state that the Sasquatch seemed like it just didn’t belong to the area, as everything there had such a negative reaction to its presence.

I wish that more information about Grendel had survived to the modern day; it would make it a lot easier for us to place a better tag than “mythical creature” on him. Was he just a mythological “troll”, or was he a Sasquatch, one of many that has long vanished from Europe due to deforestation, over-hunting, and the ever-growing encroachment on wild areas. In truth, we will never know. There is not enough of his legacy left for us to make a judgment one way or another.

Sean Viala, WCSRO Co-Founder.

October 23, 2006.